Identify the stakeholders

- Everyone who's affected by a project is a stakeholder. So in order to capture our project requirements, we need to identify who they are and analyze what they need. A good place to start is to make a list of our stakeholders. You can list them as individuals or you can list stakeholder roles or groups. For example, you might put the name of your project sponsor on the list, but you might also add customers to the list instead of listing every customer's name. Creating the stakeholder list is a good way to make sure that you're covering all of the people that need to be included in your requirements development. The next step is to understand their relationship to the project. We can start by asking whether they're advocates or opponents to the project. For example, the sponsor may support the project because it's going to increase efficiency and reduce costs. But if those efficiencies come from eliminating jobs, then the people doing those jobs today might be opposed to the project. Two other characteristics that you often want to look at are influence and impact. For each stakeholder you can rate their level of influence on a scale of one to 10. If their support is critical to the success of a project, then they're a 10. If the project will move forward regardless of whether they support it, then their influence is a one. Now, rate each stakeholder based on the impact that the project will have on them. If the project will cause a major change in their work or their life, then they get a 10. If they won't really be affected by the project, then maybe they get a one. Then you can analyze your stakeholders using a matrix like this. If you download the exercise file, you'll find this template on the stakeholders tab. Doing stakeholder analysis can help you in three ways. First, it can help to ensure that you're considering all of your stakeholders and how the project will affect them. Second, it can help you develop an effective plan for eliciting requirements from all of those stakeholders. And third, it can help you develop a communications plan so that you can keep your stakeholders engaged and informed as your project moves forward. Stakeholder analysis gives you an opportunity to understand who will be affected by your project and how it will impact them. And doing that well can help to ensure that your projects are more successful.